Could this really have happened?

Paragraphs are your friends.

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Example, the wild west, and a shoot-off in the street. Ten paces and fire? Now there's some good logic, but it obviously happened.

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I don't think that's a great example for you to use. I'm pretty sure that was mostly myth and the considered way for a gunfighter to kill someone was to shot them in the back while hiding in the dark! (not "gunslingers" - that term came into existance in 1928!)

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The articles by George Ward Nichols and Henry M. Stanley helped to develop the myth of the ritual shoot-out between two gunfighters who confront each other in a quick-draw duel. Most gunman who were in conflict with another westerner were much more likely to shoot them in the back than face a duel. There are no examples in history of two well-known gunfighters fighting in this way.

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http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWgunfighters.htmEdited by CK, : No reason given.

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Even now midwives check up regularly in weeks after a birth. I know this, because my sister has had a midwife three times; and, if you look it up online, you can find this out too. A little research goes a long way. I don't think the issue is whether or not the pharaoh in this account is "dumb", but rather how limited your knowledge of midwives is.

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What does the duties of modern midwifes have to do with what they were doing back then? Maybe the duties are the same but how do you know?On that basis, if I go into hospital I can ask the surgeon for a shave!

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We can't, so why claim it is one or the other?

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But that's the point why your western example is no good - we do know that much of the stuff said about the period was either wrong or constructed as part of the mythology in a later time period.For example it's common in westerns for people to be firing off two guns at the same time - it never happened. Oh sure people might carry two pistols but it was virtually impossible to fire one of those more than ten feet - firing two would actually decrease your accurancy! Same with the guy firing by tugging the hammer with his hands for rapid fire - total rubbish.Ninjas are another good examples were most of the common knowledge about them is bunk - but that's a story for another time

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I can totally believe in the classic shoot-out.

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But so what? There is no evidence for it - there is not a single account of any of the famous gunslingers ever being involved in such a practice. I'm not saying it never never never happened but it was in no way a common practice or one that most people would be familar with. It's "classic" in the sense that it's mostly a fictional construct. It's totally misleading to suggest otherwise.

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The fight could have been an evolution of facing off with swords, or fencing? I do not think that every shoot-out went this way.

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Good because they didn't.

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To me it is possible, because it could have been the accepted way of doing things. If you didn't then I could see people being outraged, and killing off the person who wasn't following the rules.

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But that never happened - that's just a construct of "I could see", it's nothing at all to do with historical records of the time.See the problem with this - is that you have decided "it sounds good to me" is a valid basis to proceed and that means it's both possible and probable. With no research or understanding of the historical records. You even use the word Gunslinger - a word that did not exist until 1928!I'm starting to have an idea of how Brian generally feels.....Let's leave it there but you might want to more critically think about how you consider history and historical records. Your understanding seems to be build entirely upon westerns and the myths created in dime novels of the 1890s (and then carried forward).

The skeptics version of I come from a school of thought that is "anything is possible". It is a humble position. is "don't be so open-minded that your brain falls out".